Honorable Dan Huberty, Chair, House Committee on Public Education
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB258 by González, Mary (Relating to the public school finance system.), As Introduced
The bill would make formula and structural changes to the Foundation School Program. The bill contains a number of elements that would be anticipated to improve equity among Texas school districts relative to current law. The bill would repeal the high school allotment which is codified as a Tier 1 FSP allotment but, per statute, flows outside of the operation of the Tier 1 equalized system. The bill would repeal statute that results in a higher equalized wealth level for certain districts based on the district's 1992-93 revenue per student plus the indexed change between the current equalized wealth level and the level established in 1993. Having a higher equalized wealth level allows a district to keep more revenue per WADA than an equally wealthy district that is held to the statutory equalized wealth level. The repeal of Section 41.002(e)-(g), Education Code, proposed under the bill would eliminate this access to additional unequalized revenue by ensuring that the standard equalized wealth level applies to all districts.